Sam Sloan

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Samuel Howard Sloan (born September 7, 1944) is an American chess player and publisher who lives with his family in The Bronx, New York. In 2006, Sloan served on the Executive Board of the United States Chess Federation. He competed in the 2013 World Championship of Chinese Chess in Huizhou, China.[1]

In 1970, Sloan established a registered broker-dealer that traded over-the-counter stocks and bonds. Sloan had no formal legal training but orally argued a case before the Supreme Court after litigating against the Securities and Exchange Commission over policies regarding the trading of penny stocks.[2] The Court ruled in his favor, 9–0, concerning his claim that the "tacking" of 10-day summary suspension orders for an indefinite period was an abuse of the agency's authority and a deprivation of due process.[3]

In 2010, Sloan made an unsuccessful bid for the Libertarian Party nomination in the 2010 New York gubernatorial election. He also made an unsuccessful bid for the Libertarian nomination for President of the United States in the 2012 election. He was a candidate for Mayor of New York City in 2013[4] and ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Governor and for New York's 15th congressional district in 2014.[5]

After leaving Berkeley, Sloan worked two years for the Wall Streetinvestment banking firm of Hayden, Stone & Co. in the over-the-counter trading department. In 1970, he established Samuel H. Sloan & Company, a registered broker-dealer primarily trading over-the-counter stocks and bonds. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought civil actions against Sloan & Co. in 1971–5 alleging he had failed to maintain adequate books and records. In 1975, the SEC revoked Sloan's broker-dealer registration. After years of litigation, Sloan in 1978 prevailed in the U.S. Supreme Court. Sloan argued the case pro se. The opposing attorney was Harvey Pitt, who was later Chairman of the SEC from 2001-3. Sloan won before the U.S. Supreme Court 9–0. Sloan is the last non-lawyer to argue before the court.[8][9][10]

Sloan is a chess journalist[citation needed] and author. He claims to have traveled to 78 countries, primarily attending chess tournaments. During a speech at a Libertarian Party of New York's convention Sam Sloan has claimed to have "won the World Championship of Chinese Chess in Beijing, China, in 1988."[15] He is rated an FM (equivalent to FIDE Master) by the World Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) Association.[16] Sloan has competed in tournaments in Thai (Makrook) and Japanese (Shogi) chess. He is competing in the World Championship of Chinese Chess.[1]

In July 2006, Sloan was elected to the Executive Board of the United States Chess Federation (USCF). He advocated a major expansion of scholastic chess, stating that the USCF should establish a program to certify school chess teachers. He criticized the USCF's recent move from New Windsor, New York to Crossville, Tennessee. As second-place finisher (out of five) in the special election, Sloan was elected to a one-year term on the board (the first-place finisher received a three-year term). Sloan's term of service began in August 2006. In 2007, Sloan ran for reelection to the USCF Executive Board, but was unsuccessful, finishing a distant ninth out of ten candidates. On October 2, 2007, Sloan filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking to overturn the results of the 2007 USCF election, and alleging that more than 2,000 obscene "Fake Sam Sloan" newsgroup postings prior to the election had been made by a rival candidate.[19] On August 28, 2008, US District Judge Denny Chin dismissed the suit with prejudice pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), 12(b)(2) and 12(b)(6).[20] The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal but modified it, saying that it was "without prejudice" as the case had not gone to a hearing.

On April 3, 2008, posts appeared on USENET, apparently placed by Mr. Sloan, claiming that some of his websites had been closed down by law enforcement in Amherst County, Virginia, apparently because Sloan listed the home addresses of parties involved in his long-running but moot child custody dispute involving his daughter. The USENET posting mentions County investigator Christopher Smith. During that same time, Smith was conducting a broad campaign against Internet crime in the State.[21]

Sloan renewed his bid for governor in the New York gubernatorial election, 2010, facing off against attorney Warren Redlich and former madam Kristin M. Davis. Sloan, by his own admission, is not popular within the Libertarian Party of New York and did not expect to win the nomination.[22] He has testified that a faction in the party who opposed non-Libertarian Redlich's nomination needed another candidate. Sloan eventually lost the nomination to Redlich in a two-way battle, by a vote of 27 for Redlich and 17 for Sloan, after Davis refused to show up at the convention. Despite his failure to secure the nomination, Sloan was the first to submit petitions to the board of elections with the Libertarian Party line, which effectively gives him the nomination; the down-ballot selections on Sloan's petitions are identical to those confirmed by the party committee. However, because his petitions failed to contain anywhere near the requisite 15,000 signatures, the nomination will go to Redlich; it has been speculated that Sloan is using the ploy to file a lawsuit against Redlich in his long-running dispute with the state Libertarian Party.[23] Prior to the November elections, Roger Stone Davis's campaign manager, claims that Sloan fed him information that Stone passed on to a group entitled "People for a Safer New York," who created a flyer labeling Redlich a "sexual predator."[24] The book Endgame: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Bobby Fischer, ISBN 978-0-307-46390-6 by Frank Brady page 173 states, "Aided by an Eidetic Memory [Sloan] was the last non-lawyer to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court – a case he won. Bobby trusted him."

Later that summer, Sloan attempted to submit petitions for the 2014 gubernatorial election, one for the Democratic primary (with Nenad Bach as the running mate) and another an “ambush” of the Libertarian Party line similar to the one he attempted in 2010 (with Tom Stevens as the running mate). Both petitions were ruled invalid.[28]

Sloan has been married three times. Sloan's second wife, Honzagool, was a native of Chitral (Pakistan) and they had a daughter named Shamema.[29] Sloan and Honzagool soon separated and Sloan left New York for Virginia with Shamema, leaving Shamema in the care of a Virginia couple, while Honzagool returned to Chitral. Sloan was subsequently locked into a child custody struggle, which lasted several years, with that Virginia couple over that same daughter. On September 5, 1991, in an attempt to regain custody of his daughter Shamema, Sloan was arrested. Sloan was convicted of attempted abduction of Shamema and spent 18 months in state prison.[30][31][32][33] Shamema served as a US Marine (4 years and six months) during the Iraq war and is now married to a former Marine.